Chapter 16 Elara's POV
The drive to the Blue Moon Pack was a nightmare.
Damian had borrowed a truck from someone in town. I didn't ask who or how. I was too busy trying not to throw up as we bounced along the rough forest roads.
"We are about an hour out." Damian said, glancing at me with concern.
"How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine." I lied, pressing my hand against my stomach.
I wasn't fine. The nausea was constant now, worse than it had ever been. My head pounded with each bump in the road, and I felt so weak I could barely keep my eyes open.
"Elara, you are pale as a ghost. When was the last time you kept anything down?"
I tried to remember. "Yesterday morning, I think."
Damian cursed under his breath. "That's too long. Your body can't sustain a pregnancy like this."
"The baby." I whispered, fear gripping me.
"Is the baby okay?"
"I don't know that's why we need to get you to proper medical care. Just hold on a little longer."
I nodded, but even that small movement made the world spin.
The truck hit a particularly deep pothole and I gasped, clutching the door handle. Pain shot through my abdomen, sharp and sudden.
"Pull over." I managed to say.
Damian immediately steered to the side of the road. I barely got the door open before I was sick, heaving into the dirt even though there was nothing left in my stomach.
Damian was beside me instantly, holding my hair back, his hand steady on my shoulder.
"I'm sorry." I sobbed when the heaving finally stopped. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't apologize, you can't help it." He helped me back into the truck and handed me a bottle of water.
"Small sips just enough to rinse your mouth."
I did as he said, my hands shaking so badly I could barely hold the bottle.
"Talk to me," Damian said as he started driving again, slower this time.
"Keep your mind off the nausea, tell me something. Anything."
"Like what? I don't remember anything."
"Then make something up. What do you think about when you look at the trees? The sky? What does your gut tell you about who you were before?"
I looked out the window at the passing forest. "I don't know. Sometimes I get these... feelings. Like I'm forgetting something important, something urgent but I can't grasp what it is."
"That's your memories trying to surface. It's a good sign."
"Is it? Because it just makes me feel more lost."
Damian was quiet for a moment. "You are not lost, Elara. You are right here. And whatever you can't remember, we'll figure it out together."
His words brought tears to my eyes. "Why are you so kind to me?"
"Because everyone deserves kindness. Especially when they're going through hell."
Another wave of pain rolled through my stomach and I doubled over, gasping.
"Breathe," Damian instructed, his voice calm and steady.
"In through your nose, out through your mouth slow and steady."
I tried to follow his instructions, but the pain was getting worse. It felt like something was wrong, something beyond normal pregnancy symptoms.
"Damian, something's not right," I whispered.
"I know we are almost there, just hold on."
The next thirty minutes passed in a blur of pain and nausea. Damian kept talking to me, his voice a constant soothing presence, but I could barely focus on his words. My vision kept going dark at the edges, then clearing again, then darkening once more.
"Look," he said finally. "There. That's the Blue Moon Pack border."
I forced my eyes open and saw a large wooden sign ahead: BLUE MOON PACK TERRITORY AUTHORIZED ENTRY ONLY.
As we approached, two guards stepped out from a small guardhouse. Both were large, muscular men with the bearing of trained warriors. They held up their hands, signaling us to stop.
Damian rolled down his window. "I'm Dr. Damian Shawn, I'm expected. The Alpha requested my services."
One of the guards checked a clipboard. "Yes, Dr. Shawn We were told to expect you."
His eyes shifted to me in the passenger seat. "But who is this with you?"
"A patient she needs immediate medical attention, she is pregnant and-”
The guard leaned closer to the window, his nostrils flaring slightly as he caught my scent.
His entire body went rigid.
"Marcus," He called to the other guard, his voice sharp and urgent. "Come here, now."
The second guard approached quickly. He leaned in, inhaling deeply his eyes went wide.
"That's her.” Marcus breathed. "That's the omega servant. The one the Alpha-"
But I didn't hear the rest.
The darkness that had been hovering at the edges of my vision suddenly rushed in all at once. The pain in my stomach intensified to an unbearable level, and the world tilted violently.
I heard Damian shout my name, felt the truck door opening and hands reaching for me.
Then nothing but darkness swallowed me whole.